“To Be Mindful of Their Sensitivities:” The Chinese American Chemical Society and the Scientific Diaspora

This paper investigates the Chinese American Chemical Society (CACS) as an organisation of the scientific diaspora at the end of the Cold War. Established in 1981 by mostly first-generation immigrants, the CACS adopted a non-political stance to boost the career of its members in the United States, China, and Taiwan. Tracing this non-political sensitivity to its founder, Jesse Hwa (1924-2008), the paper begins with Hwa's career as an immigrant scientist and his experience with China at the beginning of its economic reforms of the 1970s. It then studies the CACS's ambition to overcome the Cold War divide in the 1980s and reach out to Taiwan and China simultaneously. However, with limited success in technology transfer and facing issues in expanding the membership, the CACS faced a further crisis in the June Fourth Incident of 1989. As the officers tried to maintain the non-political stance amid varying responses from its members, the CACS increasingly turned attention to forging an identity for Chinese American chemists. By analysing the strategies of the CACS in building a community within the scientific diaspora, the paper enriches current scholarship on the history of twentieth-century chemistry and science diplomacy during the final days of the Cold War.